ON SINCERITY (IKHLAS) Part 1

God Almighty said: "And whoever hopeth for the meeting
with his Lord, let him do righteous work, and make none sharer of
the worship due unto his Lord." The Prophet (s) said: "Verily
actions are according to intentions, and every man has what he
has intended." Ma`ruf al-Karkhi (rah.) said:
"Whoever acts in order to receive a reward, he is one of the
traders (tujjar), and whoever acts out of fear of the Fire or
aspiring to Paradise, he is one of the slaves (`abeed), and
whoever acts for the sake of Allah, he is one of the free men
(ahrar), and this is the highest rank." Uways al-Qarani said
(r): "Hidden invocation (al-du`a fi dhahr al-ghayb) is
better than visiting and meeting," that is: because
hypocrisy (riya') might enter in the latter two.

Hujjat al-Islam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (rah.) related in the 'Ihya',
that a certain man in the middle of his worshipping heard of a
people who worshipped a tree. He went out of his house to cut it
down.

Iblis said to him: "If you cut it down they will worship
another; so return to your worship."

But he replied: "It certainly must be cut down."

Iblis opposed him, so the man wrestled him down. Iblis said:
"You are a poor man: return to your worship and I shall
place two dinars under your head every night, and God willing I
shall send someone else to cut down that tree. What do you care
as long as you yourself don't worship it?"

The poor man acquiesced and returned home. The next morning he
found two dinars under his head and so on the second day. But on
the third day he found nothing. When he saw this he went out
again to cut down the tree.

Iblis confronted&127 him and this time it was he who
wrestled the poor man down. The latter asked: "How did I
manage to overcome you the first time while you overcame me the
second?"

Iblis replied: "Because the first time your anger was for
God's sake, whereas the second time it was for the sake of two
dinars."

A man went out to fight in the way of God (li al-jihad). He
bought a nose-bag (for his horse) for a certain benefit. He saw
two angels in his dream, one saying to the other:
"Record so-and-so as a fighter for Allah (mujahidan);
record so-and-so as a tourist (mutanazzihan);
record so-and-so as a show-off (mura'iyan)."

Then the angel looked at the man and said to the other angel:
"Record this one as a trader (tajiran)."

The man said:
"I said: Allah, Allah! I did not go out except as a
mujahid!"

The angel replied: "You bought a nose-bag yesterday
intending to make a benefit thereby."

The man said: "Upon hearing this I began to weep."

So the angel said to his companion: "Record him as a
mujahid, except that he bought a nose-bag on his way in order to
gain, until Allah judges."

The Prophet (s) said: "Ibrahim (a.s.) Did not lie except
in three things, two of them regarding Allah's essence (dhat):
when he said, "(I see in the stars that) I am sick",
and when he said: "It is the biggest one among them who did
it".

Ibn al-`Arabi (not Muhyiddin, but al-Qadi Abu Bakr, another
sufi shaykh) said regarding this: "He did not count
Ibrahim's saying (about his wife): "This is my sister"
as regarding Allah's essence, because Ibrahim was greatly
interested in preserving the integrity of his bed and protecting
his wife. However, only a purely single-minded act (al-`amal
al-khalis) is considered to regard Allah's essence. Ibrahim's
saying: 'This is my Lord' at the sight of the heavenly bodies is
not taken under consideration, because he was a child at the time
and therefore not legally responsible."

(Muhammad ibn Musa) al-Damiri (d. 1405 M) mentioned in his
book 'Hayat al-Hayawan' [The Life of Animals, a zoology book]
that when Adam (a.s.) fell to earth wild animals would come to
him to greet him, and he would make an invocation on behalf of
each species for whatever befitted it. Once a group of gazelles
came to him. He invoked on their behalf and stroked their backs.
Upon this the musk-sacks (nawafij al-misk) appeared upon their
backs. Another group asked them for the reason for this and they
explained: "We visited Adam and he invoked on our behalf and
stroked our backs." So the second group went to him. He
invoked for them and stroked their backs, but they did not find
anything. They returned and said to the first group: "We did
as you had done and saw nothing of what befell you." They
replied: "We visited him for Allah's sake, and you visited
him for the sake of musk."

Blessings and Peace on the Prophet of
Perfect Sincerity, his Family, and his Companions.